Linus Tech Tips, Tech Quickie, Tech Linked channels hacked

[Pawgs]

3 minutes ago, Ferkner said:

Looks like Floatplane is borked. Every video I click on is the Short Circuit for the Razer gaming laptop.

I wasn't able to subscribe either.

But sounds on moderator that it isn't related to the hack

[TylerD321]

I don't understand why there are people who are upset with Linus Media Group for getting hacked. Everyone has had a breach at some point whether they disclose it or not. This is just a breach that we can see. The only thing that is lost is a service that the company provides - free entertainment. You should be sad that you can't watch the videos or mad at the people who hacked the company. I would imagine that the hacking on the company happens at a rate that is borderline on a brute force level. Eventually a hack is going to succeed and that is pure probability. 

[ServerSide_Drew]

I spent exactly 1 hour reporting videos on accounts by the same hackers that hit Linus Tech Tips... there are lots of them... 

 

 

 

I'd suggest everyone go hit as many of these hackers as possible with as many reports as possible. Make this slime suffer. 

[Uttamattamakin]

15 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

Canada is part of North America. The fact that US people have taken word America to means only US is more issue than umping Canada as part of America (which is geographically correct anyway).

I know where Canada is.  I am just stating that people in Canada don't call themselves American.  Going back to the beginning Canada is the part of the British colonies that did not join the rebellion.  We then invaded twice, one in the revolutionary war and again in the War of 1812.  US Americans failed to take Canada both times... our national anthem is about it.  (I think theirs is too "I stand on guard for thee".  They stand on guard from US).   Basically, they whopped us the way Finland whopped Russia. NOW the ones who will use the term Americano for anyone from north or South America are Latin Americans... but then they refer to the USians and Canadians as "norte Americano"s.  The history is complicated.   (https://thecanadaguide.com/culture/anti-americanism/)  

This is at best adjacent to the point. 

11 minutes ago, TylerD321 said:

I don't understand why there are people who are upset with Linus Media Group for getting hacked. Everyone has had a breach at some point whether they disclose it or not. This is just a breach that we can see. The only thing that is lost is a service that the company provides - free entertainment. You should be sad that you can't watch the videos or mad at the people who hacked the company. I would imagine that the hacking on the company happens at a rate that is borderline on a brute force level. Eventually a hack is going to succeed and that is pure probability. 

I don't think anyone is so much "upset" as in angry.  We are all here because we like their content.  Long time viewers have seen LMG grow from two guys in a bedroom in a parents house into a 100 person operation.  We've seen Linus go from a fresh faced kid into a tech influencer with real influence.    We want good things for LMG that means sometimes telling them things they may not want to hear but need to hear.  

Not all criticism is from anger or hate but from a hope you'll grow. 

[Honik]

4 hours ago, Im_Ostrovskiy said:

New channel logo))

Sir, you're hillarious.

[TheOneWhoSighs]

38 minutes ago, cybersecuritybro said:

Tell me how a hacker gets a random employer's access to their cell phone or authentication app, unless they are brain dead and voluntarily take a conscious decision to authorize the second security challenge from said security devices?

Don't need it. Google doesn't enforce IP address checks on the session cookies unless you use their Advanced Protection Program which requires one of those usb keys.

But lets say they did. All I need is some basic information about you, and I can call up your cell phone provider and tell them my sim card was damaged and to send me a new one. And like that I now have a sim card with your cell phone number attached to it.

 

I think cell phone companies have gotten better about that? But I know multiple famous people that got hit with that exact pathway in the past.

As for authenticator apps, cell phones aren't immune to viruses.

[mts.p]

I am traveling abroad current at Índia. If the hacker is from here let me know to help!

[Atomic Shrimp]

25 minutes ago, cybersecuritybro said:

they should have had better security and only one person responsible for access to the channels, not all of them

Certainly more security is better than less - in terms of channel access, I don't know how they have it set up, but if they have a team of people who produce and publish the content, then those team members probably all need some level of access to the channels, or else they risk being in that situation where videos can't be uploaded or published because the one person with the right account is sick, or worse, because only one person has the right kind of account and they're feeling under pressure, they let other people use their credentials to get the job done.

 

YT accounts can be granted various levels of access to a channel - so nobody should be given more privileges than they need, but in an organisation large enough to need a production team, multiple people are going to need access.

[omnirocks]

Someone created a fake 'new' channel and pretends to be communicating on the issue to gain followers quickly. Please report them as "impersonating another user" and just put "https://www.youtube.com/c/LMGClips" as the channel they're impersonating LTT since the LTT channel is down and it won't recognize it.

 

This is the fake channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@LinusTechTips2.0

[Spotty]

Split the discussion about password managers off to its own thread.

 

[Uttamattamakin]

Nice reaction from Some Ordinary Gamers.   "F in the chat". 

Another master of the art of mugging for the thumbnail. 

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, omnirocks said:

Someone created a fake 'new' channel and pretends to be communicating on the issue to gain followers quickly. Please report them as "impersonating another user" and just put "https://www.youtube.com/c/LMGClips" as the channel they're impersonating LTT since the LTT channel is down and it won't recognize it.

 

This is the fake channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@LinusTechTips2.0

Done!

[goodtofufriday]

Oof I had unsubbed last night thinking that I had somehow got subbed to a Tesla channel. 

[DirtyBlueshirt]

1 minute ago, goodtofufriday said:

Oof I had unsubbed last night thinking that I had somehow got subbed to a Tesla channel. 

Same. It's interesting from a cybersecurity perspective and I look forward to hearing about what happened... as far as they'll let us know, anyways.

[Alex T88]

14 minutes ago, omnirocks said:

Someone created a fake 'new' channel and pretends to be communicating on the issue to gain followers quickly. Please report them as "impersonating another user" and just put "https://www.youtube.com/c/LMGClips" as the channel they're impersonating LTT since the LTT channel is down and it won't recognize it.

 

This is the fake channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@LinusTechTips2.0

There is another one: https://www.youtube.com/@NatureHawk/featured. In the meantime, he deleted all the clips (older clips from LTT). However, he managed to amass over 1000 thousand subs .

[RichE]

16 minutes ago, omnirocks said:

Someone created a fake 'new' channel and pretends to be communicating on the issue to gain followers quickly. Please report them as "impersonating another user" and just put "https://www.youtube.com/c/LMGClips" as the channel they're impersonating LTT since the LTT channel is down and it won't recognize it.

 

This is the fake channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@LinusTechTips2.0

Done. 

[Taf the Ghost]

3 hours ago, Moortu said:

Perhaps not

I doubt just anyone can log in and upload videos.

So they can narrow it down to computers of people that are able to log in

Depending on the attack vector, the entire network might be compromised. And you have to validate the safety of most of the computers. The YT attacks haven't been bog-standard Phishing attacks. They've been high level malware attacks with a lot of social engineering. 

[TechTubeMedia]

Oh no! Not again!
 

LinusTechTips and NCIXCom were hacked 11 years ago! 
The hacker took down videos from both channels, and falsely accused me (lol, yep.. no ) of hacking the channel.
(my YT channel was accused of hacking him)

 

I can't remember exactly what the attack vector was back then, but now since LMG has grown unimaginably big, I reckon it was a spear phishing attack against an employee who had access to the channel. *edit* -- now that I've read a few pages of this thread -- there's the real possibility it's just malware and that the hacker got lucky capturing such a large account... I can't imagine running a crypto live stream scheme is the most profitable hack you can do when targeting large channels.
 

Hopefully this gets resolved quickly! 

11 years ago, it took a few days to resolve, and Linus ended up using his cats' "Linus Cat Tips" channel for updates.

Best of luck to the LMG team... Hopefully YouTube is on top of it this time.

Lol, I was considering sending a Merch Message a few weeks ago to ask Linus and Luke what they're doing differently from a security perspective, following the channel takeover hack they had back in 2011...

I should've done it -- it may have prompted some security checks!

[martixy]

Must be MAJOR if the channels aren't back up yet.

 

Next WANshow is gonna be saaaaucy.

[SkillTim]

Well this is one way to boost Floatplane's revenue...

[GodAtum]

Surely it must be an inside job? Surely the channel has 2FA for login?

[OddOod]

I genuinely had to check the data to make sure we weren't near April 1...

[worldsoftech]

Hope the channel is back soon

Edited March 23, 2023 by PopsCurling

[BaidDSB]

no updates from anywhere on the situation? HAS to be morning in canada by now?

[bezza...]

Just now, BaidDSB said:

no updates from anywhere on the situation? HAS to be morning in canada by now?

id imagin its going to take some time